


the way the world goes on

by cirrus (themorninglark)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon, long distance (or about to be)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2017-10-09
Packaged: 2019-01-15 05:26:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12314649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themorninglark/pseuds/cirrus
Summary: Nishinoya knows all the arguments, all of the ways Chikara gets lost in his own head. What Chikara doesn’t know is that there is a kingdom outside his head and he need only reach out his palm.





	the way the world goes on

**Author's Note:**

  * For [snowdrops](https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowdrops/gifts).



> I wrote this in response to [a SASO prompt](https://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/23665.html?thread=13878641#cmt13878641) I was intrigued by, but never got round to filling:
> 
>  _i am learning to sharpen my teeth and rule kingdoms, instead._  
>  \- Arlen C., from “a letter from medusa” 
> 
> This is for Linn. Happy birthday!

 

 

(This isn't the way the world ends, probably. Nishinoya knows better than to be so dramatic.)

 

 

This is the way the world goes on: not with a thunderclap, but the hush in the absence of one. It is deafening, a boom that echoes in Nishinoya’s ears. His hands are a warm bed for the lightning, for Chikara’s fingertips, tracing boundaries and inroads. Deliberate.

The seconds tick on. The watch on Chikara’s wrist is brand new, save for a sharp nick in the leather near the end of the strap; Nishinoya’s fault. He might have been a little too enthusiastic with his nails.

“Hey,” he asks now. Wraps his pinky round Chikara’s, drags him closer. “Excited?”

Chikara thinks about it a bit. “Well. I’m not scared, at least. I think.”

“Good,” says Nishinoya, beaming fiercely. “Don’t know why you were ever scared, you know.”

 _Well,_ Chikara murmurs again, _well_.

Nishinoya knows all the arguments, all of the ways Chikara gets lost in his own head. What Chikara doesn’t know is that there is a kingdom outside his head and he need only reach out his palm. He doesn’t even need to close his fist, to hang on tight like it’ll disappear; the thing about being Ennoshita Chikara is that he will rule with the kind of tender touch that only leaves its mark when you think to look for it. And what a mark, what a collection of them he has left all over Nishinoya.

Chikara turns, glances over his shoulder at the road. Any time now.

“I guess I just never thought I’d leave,” he says.

Nishinoya can’t help snorting in disbelief. “Never _ever_? Don’t make me laugh, Chikara.”

Once, Chikara might have flushed at that, produced an indignant retort that managed to be self-effacing at the same time. This Chikara has grown. He takes a deep breath, smiles at Nishinoya like he knows a mirror’s being held up to him, and says, “I guess I never thought I’d be good enough to leave.”

Nishinoya does laugh, now. So does Chikara. There is something electric in the sound, in the raw joining of their voices, something that makes Nishinoya press his face to Chikara’s and grin sharply.

“Thought you were supposed to be the smart one, _big city university boy_.”

“What will I do without you to remind me?” Chikara murmurs.

Nishinoya’s breath catches in his throat, a moment like sand in an hourglass. Grit and grain scratching at smooth, fine glass.

“You’ll do great,” he says.

He says it like it is the last promise in the world and he is biting it off between his teeth, a gift that’s all his to give away. Resounding, rattling. He’s always kept some thunder of his own in reserve, for times when he really needs it.

A car pulls up to the sidewalk. It’s a taxi, the one they called earlier. Nishinoya helps Chikara load his suitcase into the trunk, closes the door after him, but not before he leaves him with the blazing scar of a kiss on the corner of his mouth. He’ll need it for the road.

 _See you again,_ Chikara mouths through the window.

 _Yeah,_ Nishinoya calls back, as loud as he can in his silence. _You bet._

At the end of this ride, there’ll be the airport and there’ll be a plane for Chikara to get on, and all the farewells that they refuse to say, for this isn’t the way the world ends.

There is a sky overhead that goes on for miles. There is a cloud, somewhere on the horizon, filled to bursting with the sun. Nishinoya can’t see it right now, but he knows it is there, surely, and it will be glorious in Chikara’s hands.


End file.
